my conclusion
In my opinion, there can only be one conclusion reached given the mountain of evidence there is on this site about the closure of Perthshire Paperweights. However, after reading everything herein, and who knows, stranger things have happened, you come up with a different conclusion to the one I purport, please email me and let me know your reasoning; I'd love to know!
When faced with any question such as, why did Perthshire Paperweights actually close?, all you can do is look at the facts you have and then make a judgement based on these facts, whilst at the same time, ignoring any personal feelings which might influence any conclusion.
In ancient times, people thought that the sun went round the earth. Why did they think that? Because that's what it looked like.
Why do I think that Peter McDougall was responsible for the closure of Perthshire Paperweights in order to set up P McD Glass? Because that's what it looks like.
Perthshire Paperweights was not about to close in April 2001. In the last year of operation, that is 2001, Perthshire was still producing weights for orders well into September and October; as it had done for many years before that. The difference in 2001 was that we were not also producing the new line of weights to put into stock for the 2002 orders.
The reasons for that have been stated here, notably because the manager, Peter McDougall, did not oversee the manufacture of any new stock from May 2001 onwards.
Peter intended starting his own factory straight after Neil Drysdale died.
If he did start his own factory, he would need a lot of specialist equipment; that is not opinion, that is quite simply a fact.
Perthshire Paperweights had such equipment, unfortunately for Peter, it was using that equipment; not for long though.
In one of the biggest strokes of luck I can ever remember, much of the equipment Peter would need was suddenly to become available; who would have sen that coming? Well, me actually!
Were it not for the closure of Perthshire paperweights, it would have been more difficult for Peter to start up on his own. With Perthshire closed and all of its equipment available, starting P McD Glass was a much easier and less expensive proposition; again that is quite simply a fact.
The simple facts were:
Perthshire Paperweights was not about to close
Peter McDougall wanted to start his own factory
Perthshire Paperweights closed
Perthshire Paperweights had a lot of equipment
This equipment was no longer need by Perthshire
Peter McDougall acquired a lot of this equipment
Why do I think that Peter McDougall was responsible for the closure of Perthshire Paperweights in order to set up P McD Glass? Because quite simply, that's exactly the way it looks.
Even given the way he acquired the equipment, starting P McD Glass would still have been quite an expensive enterprise. I suspect that there were people who helped to fund this venture from the start. Such people might now be regretting this investment.
This site has been on-line for quite a while now and I know that people to whom I have attributed things have read it, yet I have had nothing sent to me which contradicts anything I have written. The only communcation I have had regarding the content of the site was from Gordon Taylor, and he agreed with everything, including the stuff about himself!
If you can offer any accurate, new information which might change this opinion, then I would welcome an email at
a small selection of Perthshire Paperweights
What was produced by Peter McDougall was NOT Perthshire Paperweights, it was PmcD Glass.
real PP weights V P McD glass
If, you have been looking at Peter McDougall's weights for so long, you can't quite remember what a quality Perthshire Paperweight looks like, which I think would be understandable, have a look at The Pictures Page of this site to see some weights made at Perthshire, and compare these to the sub-standard dross Peter produces; examples on the P McD Page.